


Pirate Girls and Boys on Bicycles

by Elennare



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode: s02e03 Dead Man's Chest, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 05:04:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16340318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elennare/pseuds/Elennare
Summary: Phryne and Jack reminisce about childhood adventures.





	Pirate Girls and Boys on Bicycles

“So, tell me, Jack. Where did you collect your coins? Amongst the ruins of ancient Greece, or deep in the jungles of Patagonia?”

“I inherited my collection from Uncle Ted and sold it at the age of 12, so I could buy my first bicycle.”

“Now that's an adventure,” Phryne said, eyes lighting up. She could just picture the boy Jack would have been, with the same stubborn determination as the man he was now.

Jack smiled reminiscently. “It was. It was. I rode further than I'd ever ridden before, through the uncharted wilds of North Richmond.”

“Where even Captain Flint didn't dare tread,” Phryne exclaimed, the evocative magic of ‘uncharted wilds’ reminding her of her own childhood idol.

“And the pirate girls of Collingwood ruled the waves,” Jack replied.

“To pirates, adventurers and boys on bicycles!” Phryne raised her glass in a toast.

She leaned back more comfortably in her corner of the window seat as she sipped her drink, and looked at Jack thoughtfully. ‘The pirate girls of Collingwood’... She had brought up Captain Flint first, of course, but she knew it was more than that; Jack was always careful with his words. And the way he had tilted his head towards her in acknowledgement as he said it, his familiar smile - it had been deliberate, she was sure, a reference to the tales Phryne had told him of playing at pirates on the streets of Collingwood, with an old bathtub for a boat and a sheet for a sail. The game she had played with Janey… Phryne still found it hard to even mention her sister to most people, and suspected she always would. But Jack wasn’t most people - perhaps because he had been there by her side throughout all the events with Murdoch Foyle? Because he had been there in the aftermath, too, as she learnt how to go on without that horrible uncertainty always clinging to her? Because, in that and so many other ways, he had proved himself a true friend? She wasn’t sure quite which it was, perhaps it was all of those things together; but she could speak of Janey to him.

“Do you know, I never sailed a boat until I moved to England?” she said now. A story for a story, that was how a lot of their conversations went, and the talk of pirates reminded her of this one. “We had a school trip to the seaside where they took us boating. I came horribly close to backing out at the last minute; I couldn’t help thinking all the time leading up to it how much Janey would have loved it… but then I thought how disappointed with me she would have been if I didn’t go.”

“So you went ahead,” Jack said softly.

“For the honour of the Collingwood pirates,” Phryne replied, nostalgia overlaying her usual merry laugh.

Jack’s answering look was gentle, understanding, and they sat silent for a few moments. Then, taking a deep breath and deliberately adopting her most mischievous smile, Phryne added, “Of course, I did have my reputation at school to think about too.”

“Oh?” Jack raised his eyebrows.

“I was the school daredevil, you see - ”

“You astound me, Miss Fisher,” Jack interrupted in his driest tones, and Phryne wrinkled her nose at him.

“ - And I couldn’t have held up my head among the girls again if I’d funked it, they’d have thought I was just being a coward,” she went on.

Jack laughed at the sudden intrusion of schoolgirl slang, reminded of his own school days. “So girls’ schools are like that too? I remember doing all sorts of ridiculous things - well, they’re ridiculous now, but at the time it seemed like the end of the world to ‘funk it’, as you say.” Seeing how Phryne’s face lit up with interest, he hurriedly continued, eager to forestall any questions about what the ‘ridiculous things’ might have been. “Was the sailing expedition a success, then?”

“That rather depends on who you ask,” Phryne said, a faint smirk playing about her lips. “We girls certainly enjoyed it, but I don’t think Miss Booth did… You could say it dampened her enthusiasm for seaside trips.”

“What did you do?” Jack asked immediately, no doubt in his mind that Phryne’s choice in words was a deliberate - and terrible - pun.

“Really, Inspector, you’re horribly suspicious. What makes you think I did anything at all?”

Jack looked disbelieving at her innocent expression. “I know you, Miss Fisher.”

“I really didn’t, at least not on purpose,” Phryne replied. “She was in my boat, and it was my turn with the tiller when the wind suddenly changed just enough to jibe the boom over and knock her clean overboard!” Her eyes twinkled at Jack. “I didn’t make it happen, but I wasn’t exactly sorry about it either - there wasn’t any love lost between us, and she’d been too busy driving me to distraction with lectures about being careful to pay attention herself to what the sail was doing, so it seemed like poetic justice. And it gave the swim team girls a chance to practice their life-saving skills, so everyone had a good time.”

“Except poor Miss Booth,” Jack said, trying to look serious and failing.

“‘Poor Miss Booth’ survived to give me detention for a week, so you’ll forgive me for not feeling too sorry for her,” Phryne said with a snort. “But there you have it, that was my first sailing adventure.”

“Well, I’ll remember to keep an eye out if I ever find myself on a boat with you,” Jack teased.

“If we were still at Queenscliff, I’d suggest we go sailing right away,” Phryne retorted, with a mock-offended look. Then, more lightly, “I’m going back to collect Aunt Prudence in a week or so, if you’d care to join me then.”

“She’s letting you drive her again? A brave woman,” Jack said, dodging the invitation.

Phryne pulled a face at his teasing, but let his avoidance slide for the time being. She could always invite him again once she knew when Aunt Prudence wanted her to go, and a more last-minute ‘come if you can’ invitation might be easier for him to accept than something arranged in advance.

Instead, she circled back to a another topic he’d tried to divert her from. “So, Jack, what sort of ‘ridiculous things’ did you get up to in your schooldays?”

**Author's Note:**

> I found that 'pirate girls' line of Jack's fascinating when juxtaposed with the recurring flashback scene of Phryne and Janey playing at sailing, so I wanted to take a look at that :)


End file.
